This semester, I took English 101: Foundations of College Writing with Dr. Sherry. In the class, we did three projects: CLUE, EAR and TELL. For the CLUE project, we had to propose a question that revolved about college life and students in someway and find research from sources as well as do our own research and then compare the two in the form of a research paper. My CLUE paper was written about what influences a college student to choose their major, and I had concluded from the research I found and the research that I gathered myself is that college students tend to choose majors that they can associate positive feelings with, such as encouragement from family and friends, or a great amount of passion for the field. The EAR project was taking the information we had gathered from the CLUE project and changing the format to make it appropriate for certain audiences and settings. I made three items for my EAR project: a brochure for incoming freshmen about choosing a major that is a good fit for them, a flyer for family members of incoming freshmen explaining how they can help with choosing the incoming freshmen's major, and a satire that was made from a quote that one of my interviewees told me when I was gathering research for the CLUE project. The TELL project is a narrative that we wrote about experiences in our past, present, and (hypothetical) future. They all needed to tie together and explain what it means in our opinion to be educated. With these three assignments, the class has allowed each student to reach the five goals required of the class to be explained below:
Goal A - Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes
This goal means that students should have the ability to transform information in ways that are appropriate to who is viewing it and why. To represent this goal, I have chosen to use a brochure that I made about choosing majors for incoming freshmen and a flyer of the same topic for family members of incoming freshmen. The information from both of these pieces were originally from a research paper I had written in the class previously about what influences someone to choose their major, and then formatted it so that the information could be displayed on a flyer and a brochure.
I thought that the audience that would benefit the most from a surplus of information about choosing a major would be incoming freshmen, and the best way to display this amount of information but not look like a wall of text is to use a brochure. I made sure to summarize the information from my paper so that the amount of information would not be overwhelming to look at and organized in a way that it would be easy to read.
To make this flyer appropriate for family members of incoming freshmen, I used the information from my research paper and rewrote it into tips that could be useful, such as not encouraging the incoming freshmen to pursue the same field as them, because it is very uncommon.
Goal B - Students will be able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to genre
For this goal, students should have the ability to write or present using the style and expectations of the form. To demonstrate this goal, I have decided to use my CLUE project. The CLUE project is a research paper that I wrote about what influences a college student to choose their major. The paper was written in APA format because of the amount of research done to compose the paper. It is also organized into five sections: problem (where the question is stated), background (where data is gathered from sources to provide information on the topic I will be doing research on), method (the way I will be gathering my own data), findings (displaying the data I had gathered on my own), and conclusion (comparing the data from the sources to the data I had collected).
Goal C - Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments
In this goal students should be able to find, evaluate and use information that will help them support a point. I decided to use my CLUE project once again to demonstrate this goal because a majority of the project is gathering information to come to a conclusion on a question I had proposed. In the CLUE project, I asked the question "what influences a student to choose their major" and to answer that question, I first found sources about trends in students picking their majors. I used the information from those sources to form questions that I would then use to ask students of Bloomsburg University, such as their happiness in their current major, why they picked their major, if they had ever changed their major and why, if there was any pressure from family to be in a specific major, and if job security had anything to do with their decision. Finally, I compared the information from the sources I had found with the data I had collected from the students and came to the conclusion that a majority of students pick majors and tend to stay in majors when there are positive feelings associated with it, such as encouragement from family or a love for the field.
Goal D - Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres
This goal implies that students should be able to know how to identify different genres and be able to form them on their own. To represent this goal, I will use the flyer I made for family members of incoming freshmen using information from the CLUE project as well as a satire that I made also using the information from the CLUE project.
I wanted the flyer to grab the attention of family members so that they would pay attention to it, but didn't want them to be overwhelmed by a large amount of information. So, I made sure that there was only necessary information for a family member to have.
The purpose of a satire is to be able to use humor as a way to address a topic that might not be so humorous. To make this satire, I used a quote I had heard from one of the students I had interviewed for my CLUE project about what people had said to them about choosing to be a music major, and how they were told that they would live in a box one day.
Goal E - Students will be able to discuss and apply appropriate writing processes both individually and in collaborative contexts
This goal states that work has the potential to be improved through editing by oneself and by others. After every draft was due, peer editing would follow. It gave the class the opportunity to have the work be seen from a different point of view and be offered suggestions that could improve the paper, whether they were taken or not. To demonstrate this, I will present the drafts of my CLUE project and brochure as well as the revised versions of them.
During the peer review, my peers brought my attention to grammatical errors I had in my paper, as well as offering advice on changing the wording of some sentences to make them sound more appropriate in the setting of a research paper.
After being looked at by peers, they helped me realize that there were issues with the brochure's consistency in alignment and contrast of the headings in the brochure. They also suggested that I make the title of the brochure something more than just "Bloomsburg University" which I had agreed with to make it look more attractive to read.
Goal A - Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes
This goal means that students should have the ability to transform information in ways that are appropriate to who is viewing it and why. To represent this goal, I have chosen to use a brochure that I made about choosing majors for incoming freshmen and a flyer of the same topic for family members of incoming freshmen. The information from both of these pieces were originally from a research paper I had written in the class previously about what influences someone to choose their major, and then formatted it so that the information could be displayed on a flyer and a brochure.
Brochure:
I thought that the audience that would benefit the most from a surplus of information about choosing a major would be incoming freshmen, and the best way to display this amount of information but not look like a wall of text is to use a brochure. I made sure to summarize the information from my paper so that the amount of information would not be overwhelming to look at and organized in a way that it would be easy to read.
Flyer:
To make this flyer appropriate for family members of incoming freshmen, I used the information from my research paper and rewrote it into tips that could be useful, such as not encouraging the incoming freshmen to pursue the same field as them, because it is very uncommon.
Goal B - Students will be able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to genre
For this goal, students should have the ability to write or present using the style and expectations of the form. To demonstrate this goal, I have decided to use my CLUE project. The CLUE project is a research paper that I wrote about what influences a college student to choose their major. The paper was written in APA format because of the amount of research done to compose the paper. It is also organized into five sections: problem (where the question is stated), background (where data is gathered from sources to provide information on the topic I will be doing research on), method (the way I will be gathering my own data), findings (displaying the data I had gathered on my own), and conclusion (comparing the data from the sources to the data I had collected).
Goal C - Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments
In this goal students should be able to find, evaluate and use information that will help them support a point. I decided to use my CLUE project once again to demonstrate this goal because a majority of the project is gathering information to come to a conclusion on a question I had proposed. In the CLUE project, I asked the question "what influences a student to choose their major" and to answer that question, I first found sources about trends in students picking their majors. I used the information from those sources to form questions that I would then use to ask students of Bloomsburg University, such as their happiness in their current major, why they picked their major, if they had ever changed their major and why, if there was any pressure from family to be in a specific major, and if job security had anything to do with their decision. Finally, I compared the information from the sources I had found with the data I had collected from the students and came to the conclusion that a majority of students pick majors and tend to stay in majors when there are positive feelings associated with it, such as encouragement from family or a love for the field.
Goal D - Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres
This goal implies that students should be able to know how to identify different genres and be able to form them on their own. To represent this goal, I will use the flyer I made for family members of incoming freshmen using information from the CLUE project as well as a satire that I made also using the information from the CLUE project.
Flyer:
I wanted the flyer to grab the attention of family members so that they would pay attention to it, but didn't want them to be overwhelmed by a large amount of information. So, I made sure that there was only necessary information for a family member to have.
Satire:
The purpose of a satire is to be able to use humor as a way to address a topic that might not be so humorous. To make this satire, I used a quote I had heard from one of the students I had interviewed for my CLUE project about what people had said to them about choosing to be a music major, and how they were told that they would live in a box one day.
Goal E - Students will be able to discuss and apply appropriate writing processes both individually and in collaborative contexts
This goal states that work has the potential to be improved through editing by oneself and by others. After every draft was due, peer editing would follow. It gave the class the opportunity to have the work be seen from a different point of view and be offered suggestions that could improve the paper, whether they were taken or not. To demonstrate this, I will present the drafts of my CLUE project and brochure as well as the revised versions of them.
CLUE draft and final:
During the peer review, my peers brought my attention to grammatical errors I had in my paper, as well as offering advice on changing the wording of some sentences to make them sound more appropriate in the setting of a research paper.
Brochure draft and final:
After being looked at by peers, they helped me realize that there were issues with the brochure's consistency in alignment and contrast of the headings in the brochure. They also suggested that I make the title of the brochure something more than just "Bloomsburg University" which I had agreed with to make it look more attractive to read.